


Inconvenient Habit

by ArtemisRayne



Series: May Look at a King - A Newsies Felisian AU [1]
Category: Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Alternate Universe - Felisian, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cat Ears, Cat/Human Hybrids, Established Relationship, Felisian, Felisian!Jack, Fluff, Fluff and Crack, I Don't Even Know, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-03
Updated: 2018-07-03
Packaged: 2019-06-04 20:50:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15155357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArtemisRayne/pseuds/ArtemisRayne
Summary: Davey knows from experience that felisians, as a whole, hate being compared to the cats with which they share certain physical characteristics. That said, he can't help but notice that his boyfriend does exhibit a few behaviors that might be considered, well, cat-like.





	Inconvenient Habit

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know what this is, guys. My muse took off on a lark and the next thing I know, this bit of diabetes-inducing crack was on my screen. It's ridiculous, but in the end, the idea was too cute to just toss it. Posting it so I stop toying with it and can get back to my other works. 
> 
> This is just a one-shot for the time being, but I have a couple ideas for possible related stories, depending on reader interest. 
> 
> Title inspired by a quote from "Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There" by Lewis Carroll

_"A cat will do what it wants when it wants, and there's not a thing you can do about it."_

_-_ Frank Perkins 

* * *

If you ask a felisian, they will tell you that they share little more than certain physical similarities with the feline counterparts that give them their name. Davey has met a few felisians in his life, and he knows from experience that they almost unequivocally hate being compared to cats. He can understand that they get annoyed by the stereotypes - jokes about milk and mice and catnip, people thinking it's okay to pet just because they have ears and a tail - and he tries to avoid making assumptions.

That said, he can't help but notice that his boyfriend exhibits some behaviors that can only be considered cat- _like_.

"Jack, I'm trying to study."

The nudge against his shoulder pauses. "I know," Jack responds casually.

Davey sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. "Which would be a lot easier to do if you'd stop distracting me."

"I ain't doin' nothin'," Jack protests. Davey snorts and glances sideways, finding himself once again struck by the bizarre, exotic beauty of this man beside him on the tiny dorm bed.

Jack Kelly is classically handsome even by usual human standards, with his square jaw and sun-gold skin and easy, confident smile. Then there're the things that make him _more_ than an average human. His eyes, a stunning, jewel-bright amber, are bisected by narrow ovoid pupils beneath the dorm's harsh fluorescents. Sleek, triangular ears, all black save for a patch of brown on the back of one, protrude from the curve of his skull, parting his dark hair around them. When his lips quirk up on one side at Davey's blatant staring, it reveals the tip of a too-sharp canine.

"I told you before you came over, I need to get this assignment done," Davey says firmly. "And the longer you keep distracting me, the longer it'll take me to finish. So could you find something to entertain yourself for like a half hour, then we'll get dinner. Okay?"

One of Jack's ears twitches, an annoyed tell he's never been good at hiding, but he pulls out his phone and turns his attention to that in a pointed gesture. "Thank you," Davey says, smiling, and he bumps his shoulder gently against Jack's before going back to his textbook.

The problem with cats is that when they want attention, there is little in the world that can dissuade them, regardless of what their human is doing. Turns out felisians - or at least _this_ particular one - aren't so different.

It's only a couple minutes later when Jack leans his weight against Davey's shoulder again, eyes still fixed on the game he's playing on his phone. This is normal for them, the closeness. Jack has always had little care for personal space, ever since their first meeting when he inserted himself so firmly into Davey's world. Besides, Jack regularly sits with his hips canted to the side, at least one foot tucked up underneath him to take the pressure off his tail and provide more room for the additional vertebrae.

After a while, Jack's head drifts down to settle on Davey's shoulder, making himself comfortable. This is a little more distracting, but Davey is willing to let it slide because at least Jack is still keeping himself occupied with his phone. Then one ear flicks, a vague, unconscious gesture, and the stiff, white guard hairs at the tip tickle as they brush Davey's neck. He flinches, shrugging his shoulder and prompting an irritated grumble from Jack, who obligingly shifts his head slightly.

Jack's tail, the sinuous whip of black and brown dappled fur, is wrapped across his toes, and the end of it - adorably white, like the felisian's dipped the last several inches into paint (which Davey's actually seen him do before, come to think of it, although on accident) - undulates against the side of Davey's thigh. This feeling is familiar enough that Davey can mostly ignore it, the oddity of dating someone with a tail having worn off after the first few weeks, although the rhythmic flicker of bright white in the corner of his vision is diverting.

A minute later, another ear flit sweeps slowly over Davey's skin in a move that can only be deliberate. Davey rolls his eyes and turns to blow a gust of air onto the felisian's ears. Jack recoils with a low growl, his ears fluttering at the rush of input against the delicate hairs. "Don't hiss at me," Davey counters unapologetically, turning his gaze back to the textbook in front of him. "I warned you."

"I don't hiss," Jack mutters petulantly, ears flattened against his skull in obvious indignation. With a huff, he withdraws from Davey's shoulder, coiling up on his side on the mattress. Jack pillows one arm under his head, the other hand still preoccupied with his phone screen, and his tail comes up to drape over his ankles.

Content that he's just bought himself at least fifteen minutes of undisturbed studying while his boyfriend has a good sulk, Davey triumphantly dives back into his homework. He really needs to stop underestimating Jack's persistence, in retrospect.

It's less than five minutes later when Jack tosses his phone onto the floor with a bored _humph_ , folding into himself. He looks like he's about to take a nap - Davey deliberates resists the urge to call it a _cat_ nap in his head - and Davey finds himself hoping that's true. Jack sleeps sporadically as it is, between work and school, and he's been on a painting frenzy lately which results in a lot of late nights where he gets so caught up in the art that he forgets to go to bed.

The movements happen so slowly that Davey almost doesn't notice them at first. As Jack's muscles relax contentedly, his fetal position softens, opening up a little. The top of Jack's head comes to rest against Davey's hip. A lazy stretch, accompanied by one of those yawns that curl the tip of his tongue, ends with one of Jack's hands draped over Davey's thigh, just above the knee. Davey raises an eyebrow, shaking his head fondly, but doesn't brush him off.

Then comes the nuzzling.

It starts with small shifts of his head like Jack's just searching out a more comfortable position as he nods off. Each little movement brings him gradually closer and closer, first his temple on the edge of Davey's thigh, then his cheek. Jack noses his way into the gap between Davey's extended arm and his leg, head pillowed on Davey's lap, and he rubs his cheek there in a move that Davey knows is possessive. The hand on his knee flexes, fingers half-contracting and then relaxing again in a steady, sleepy pattern.

Davey sighs and his head falls back, something like resignation settling over him. "You're incorrigible, you know," Davey informs the languid heap of limbs, but he moves his hand to Jack's crown, lightly rubbing the juncture where hard bone gives into deceptively strong muscle, silken hair into soft, downy fur. Jack hums as Davey scratches his scalp below his ear, nuzzling into him again with a self-satisfied grin.

Regardless of Davey's token protests, the felisian has gotten exactly what he wanted in the first place.

"It's going to take me all night to get my homework done at this rate," Davey says with a half-hearted attempt at annoyance. As obnoxious as the interruptions might be, there's also something exhilarating about Jack like this, trusting and at ease in a way he isn't with other people. Jack is often guarded, insecurities hidden behind false bravado and charming confidence. With Davey, he's just _Jack_ , unashamed to let his instincts and nature creep forward, unafraid of being rejected for those parts that make him not-quite-human.

"S'okay," Jack replies, yawning again, and his eyes float shut. It seems he's going to take that nap after all. "I'm comfy. Take ya time."

Davey snorts a laugh, fond and exasperated, but as his eyes go back to the textbook, his fingers keep up their gentle circles into the warm bunch of muscle and nerves at the base of Jack's ear. Jack unwinds, his tail swaying like a pendulum over the edge of the bed and his right hand continuing to knead unconsciously at Davey's knee.

Davey only makes it a page further into his reading when the sound starts; first, just the faintest deep rumble, then progressively stronger, like the rev of an old sports car. The force of it vibrates slightly, a low tremor that can be felt resonating in the lumpy dorm mattress. Davey has to bite his lip to stop himself laughing at the noise only he ever hears, the one Jack will deny to the dying breath he ever makes.

After all, while they might share some physical similarities, felisians are _not_ cats. Davey ruminates over that in amusement as he finishes his assigned reading to the sound of Jack's sleepy purr.


End file.
